Essendon star Brendon Goddard and James Hird's former media advisor have taken a swipe at Mike Fitzpatrick on a day the departing AFL chairman said he had no regrets over how the league had handled the Bombers' supplements scandal.
The AFL confirmed on Wednesday that Fitzpatrick would step down from the top role on April 4, and be replaced by former Wesfarmers boss, Richard Goyder.
Fitzpatrick enjoyed great success over his 10 years as chairman but his tenure will largely be clouded by the Bombers' scandal, ultimately resulting in 34 past and present players being banned.
While the AFL was criticised for its handling of arguably the biggest issue the game has faced, including the manner in which former Essendon coach James Hird was suspended and his situation handled, Fitzpatrick said he had no regrets.
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"I think it was a really difficult issue, what happened was difficult, it should never have happened. But I am totally comfortable with the way we dealt with it," he said.
"It was a very difficult issue to deal with and I felt – as different events unfolded – the commission and the AFL dealt with them as they came, dealt with them under their processes, so I am quite comfortable with how we dealt with it. For me, it's not so much a lowlight as something we had to deal with."
However, Goddard, who was caretaker skipper last season while Jobe Watson was suspended, was unimpressed by Fitzpatrick's comments.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Mike!" Goddard wrote on Twitter.
Goddard joined the Bombers from St Kilda just months before the supplements saga broke in February, 2013. He had been expecting to join a premiership contender but the scandal has derailed the second half of his career.
Hird's former media advisor Ian Hanke also took aim at Fitzpatrick.
"If Goyder takes over from Fitzpatrick at #AFL then its to be hoped he overhauls the organisation and rids it of internal conflicts," Hanke wrote on Twitter.
The AFL has yet to publicly release an official review of its handling of the saga, which clouded the league for four seasons.
Fitzpatrick, a two-time Carlton premiership skipper, warned the threat of performance-enhancing drugs would always remain but felt it would not be the sport's biggest issue over the next decade.
"I think the drugs issue, to some extent, in terms of performance enhancing, it is going to be an issue," he said.
"It always has been an issue and I think it will always be some players who just get tempted by it, and often they are marginal players. That's no different from when I played.
"It will be an issue but I don't think it's going to be the overwhelming issue. I think the overwhelming issue for Australian rules is going to be competition from other sports."
Fitzpatrick said it was understandable his reign would be remembered for the Essendon fiasco of 2012 when players were injected in a program overseen by disgraced sports scientist Stephen Dank.
"It's going to be mentioned because it was an event which occurred which should never have occurred, and the scale of it in one club," he said.
"But ... I felt we dealt with it appropriately. My view on that is, this was an administration and a commission that was able to deal with something of that scale."
Hird, who agreed to a suspension in 2014 for his part in the saga but returned to coach a year later, has recently returned home after an overdose left him hospitalised. Fitzpatrick said he was bewildered at claims the AFL had contributed to Hird's recent ill health.
"To be frank, I don't quite understand that, to the extent that James was welcomed back to the code in 2015. He coached and I am not sure – from my point of view, he was suspended for a year, he was allowed back into the code, it is a very forgiving code," he said.
"He had done his time, came back in. I don't believe the AFL has in any way harassed or in any way sought to undermine his return to the game."
The AFL has dismissed suggestions it blocked plans by SEN radio station to have Hird provide special comments at matches this season.
Fitzpatrick also defended his decision in 2013 to draft in Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie to help broker a deal between Essendon and the league.
"No, I think that is one of the sillier comments. Any transaction, the use of intermediaries is common. In that case it was quite useful in getting to a conclusion," he said.
Wylie, a long-time business associate of Fitzpatrick and Bombers chairman Paul Little, provided counsel several times when Gillon McLachlan, then the AFL deputy chief, reached a stalemate with Little. The Bombers would eventually be banned from the 2013 finals series, fined $2 million for bringing the game into disrepute and stripped of draft picks.
Pointing to a record broadcast rights deal, new stadiums, equalisation and the launch of the AFLW, Fitzpatrick said there was much he should be remembered for outside of the Essendon issue but added: "I think the important thing is, you had something that was as interesting I think to journalists as Essendon, I think the reality was the administration and the commission got on with it and did the work and basically kept building the code and weren't distracted. We dealt with it but we weren't distracted."